Deploying a voicebot: are you ready yet?

Voicebots are increasingly being used by government agencies and companies. Only logical, because they can communicate with your customer 24/7, and when you combine them with human support, you get the best of both worlds. Of course, that doesn't mean that the chatbot you may have already invested a lot of time and money into is passé. They can actually reinforce each other.

In this article I will tell you how we ended up in the era of (voice)bots, what the difference is between a voicebot and a chatbot and how you as a company can ultimately benefit from this.

Voicebot vs. chatbot

If you, as a company, choose to support your customer service with a bot, then a chatbot and/or a voicebot is the most obvious choice. Both have the same goal: to provide a consistent, personalized customer experience, without losing the quality of information provision. Simple and unempathetic tasks can be handled by bots.

Customer requests that require empathy or specialized knowledge are better handled by your employees. They therefore have more time for that; all repetitive tasks are taken care of by the bot. You should actually view a bot as an extension of your customer contact employees or as an internal digital assistant of these employees.

With today's voicebot, you can create your own brand voice via a synthetic voice.

But what does a voicebot offer extra compared to a chatbot?

Chatbots with AI technology use the same design and logic as voice bots, but the interfaces and interactions are different. A chatbot is used for online chat communication – mainly via text – and automates messages with people via messaging platforms. A chatbot's software is based on text or rich media such as buttons or photos. A chatbot can be integrated into messaging apps such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.

The interface and interaction with voicebots is different from chatbots. A voicebot is an AI bot that uses speech recognition to identify user commands and also responds via voice. You don't let your customer chat, but call your company. Just not (directly) with a live person.

THE NUMBERS

The need for balance: Customer focus and efficiency in channel strategy

In our pursuit of cost control and efficiency, we must never lose sight of customer focus. Too strict channel management, with the emphasis on sending customers to certain channels, can lead to customer frustration and even customer loss. It is essential to strike a balance between customer focus and operational efficiency. By providing diverse channels and offering accessible and user-friendly solutions, you can increase customer satisfaction and create a positive brand experience.

Now: Interactive voice response

In an effort to better understand and assist the customer, and route them to the appropriate customer service department, interactive voice response (IVR) was born. Think of the telephone menus through which you as a customer are guided and you have to enter a number to be transferred to the correct department. This is still widely used today, but in my opinion it is not customer friendly. Interactive voice response is predefined and if your question is not configured within the menu, you will end up in the busy telephone queue of “other questions”. This also has to be different.

Now and the future: artificial intelligence

Gartner, a leading research and consultancy firm in the field of information technology, has been predicting for many years that AI will be “the next big thing”. And they are right. AI is getting better and is essential for the development of bot and speech technology. AI is outgrowing its initial phase, but has the potential to revolutionize the way we interact with computers and associated digital processes. AI is able to analyze millions of conversations via voice and chatbots and make them function increasingly better.

Voice assistants such as Siri, Google Assistant and Alexa were just the beginning and are becoming increasingly embedded in our daily lives. Voice technology is also becoming increasingly common, with Amazon's Echo and Google Home devices becoming very popular. Another example is in the car to call someone or select music. The automotive industry is embracing voice technology to increase driving safety by eliminating or limiting a “touch” interface.

What options does the voicebot offer now?

Voicebots herald a new era in which customers can have a natural conversation with a computer. Voicebots are used in hands-free devices such as Amazon Echo and Google Home. But also in customer service applications of call centers, for example to automate the provision of answers to repetitive questions. Voicebots use AI algorithms to convert spoken words into text (speech to text). They then interpret the user's intent and respond accordingly.

Today's voicebots can update your personal information, change your telephone subscription, provide insight into an energy bill, book a hotel room or schedule an appointment. They are becoming more sophisticated and starting to appear in more and more applications. And as AI continues to improve, it's impossible to say what else it's capable of.

Using voicebots for customer contact

Voicebots can provide your customers with a fast and convenient way to get the information they need or complete a task without having to wait for a human agent. As speech recognition technology continues to improve, the voicebot will only become more popular and sound more natural. Nowadays it is even possible to create a brand voice through a synthetic voice. Synthetic voices can be created using recording scripts with a selected voice actor.

As you can see, all these developments mean that companies that want to stay ahead must now invest in voicebot technology. A voicebot can easily be linked to software, such as back office systems or customer data systems. Furthermore, a voicebot can contribute to barrier-free documents. Someone with a disability may find it easier to interact with an organization through his or her voice.

Use voicebots wisely, not recklessly

Please don't automate everything and use a voicebot with care. Be aware in which processes you use them and in which automation. Empathy towards your customer is and remains crucial for a good customer experience. And in some cases it is not wise to force your customer to use bots. For example, suppose you are an insurance company and the claims process for home contents insurance is automated. When a customer calls you and ends up with a voicebot, the bot must be intelligent and trained to detect the emotional impact of a claim. Claiming a broken window can be handled automatically, but in the event of a major flood, the bot must immediately connect the customer to a human agent due to the high emotional impact and the associated complex handling.

Three conclusions

Provide a healthy dose of empathy
Customers want to communicate and interact with companies as easily as possible. “Zero effort” is increasingly becoming the norm because time is precious. Customers are increasingly using applications or coming into contact with companies that already offer this as standard, which is why fast, good service is seen as a basic need instead of a distinguishing feature. This basic need is becoming less and less a distinguishing feature. Companies that invest in this and know how to apply the right empathy will lose fewer customers.

A channel with perhaps the shortest response time
Customers always look for channels with the shortest response time. Voicebot responses are fast, so they save a lot of time. They also don't require much coaching compared to humans, which reduces the time between installation and productivity in most companies. Bots are easy to scale and can serve hundreds of customers simultaneously.

A new phase of digital customer interactions
This means that we are entering a brand new phase. What we will experience in the next 10 years, according to trend watcher and CX specialist Steven Van Belleghem, is an evolution from effortless interfaces to improved interfaces.

At Dialog Group we have developed a winning contact strategy in which asynchronous communication in combination with (voice) bots plays a major role in all phases of this strategy. Our mission is to make digital interaction with your customers easy. That is why we see digital self-service as a crucial means of retaining customers. As digital self-service becomes more popular, voicebots are becoming an increasingly important tool for businesses.

* The translations on this website are provided by G-Translate from Dutch